Intra-personal conflict

Becky is a high school senior who has studied hard all of her life in order to attend a good college and get a good education.  She is in the top 3% of her class.  She has been told by many people including friends, family and school counselors that she should attend college right away.  She is accepted at a beautiful college close to a beach in California only she wants to take a break from all her studying.  She doesn't feel as if she is ready to attend college seriously, but she doesn't want to give up the chance to attend this college of her choice. She feels that if she doesn't attend the college right away that she is jeopardizing her chances of getting admitted later.  Her head is telling her that she needs to attend college now, but her heart is not in it. She is faced with an intra-personal conflict. When we have to choose between what we want to do and what we should do we are experiencing intra-personal conflicts.

Intra-group conflicts

I see these alot as we work in cooperative groups at school.  All but one of the students in the group want to do well.

Anthony doesn't care about his grades, he doesn't get help at home.  He lives with his mother who has had a very difficult life.  She never finished high school and doesn't stress the importance of an education to Anthony.  Anthony is put with a group of students who will hopefully motivate him to want to do well.  The teacher comes up with an activity that she feels the students will enjoy.  All the students in the group are motivated to do well and receive a good grade.  They know that their grade is dependent on all members of this group.  They decide to split the work up somewhat evenly but they don't want to give Anthony too much responsibility.  Anthony is actually excited about the project and wants to do some of the research.  The other students feel that the research is a critical part of the assignment and ask him to participate in the production instead of the research.  Anthony feels rejected and decides not to participate in the assignment at all.  The students try to get him involved but he refuses.  They know they will be held accountable and decide to let him help with the research only now Anthony has given up.  He no longer wants to contribute and sits doing nothing.  The group is upset by his refusal-and ends up with a lower grade because of his lack of participation.  This is an example of intra-group conflict.

Interpersonal Conflict-

Becky and Joann are sharing a student teacher.  The student teacher is very confident yet incompetent.  She doesn't listen to advice or comments made by her cooperating teachers.  She is loud and argumentative with students and appears lazy.  Becky has decided to take her class away from the student teacher altogether.  After a short time Becky took back all teaching responsiblities but didn't tell the student teacher why.  She lead the student teacher to believe that she was relieved of her duties so that she could experience other tasks.  Becky has decided to give the student teacher a poor evaluation without ever giving her opportunities to improve.  Joann feels this is very unfair to the student teacher.  She also is having difficulty with the student teacher but wants to be honest and tell her what she needs to do to improve.  Joann is frustrated because she feels the responsbility of the student teacher has fallen all on her. Becky and Joann are required to fill out a joint evaluation for the student teacher.  Joann feels that the evaluation should include some higher marks because Becky wasn't fair and honest with the student teacher.  Becky feels that the student teacher had a chance and blew it.  She wants to give all poor marks. This is an example of interpersonal conflict.

Inter-group Conflict-

The sixth grade class in Florida is going on a field trip.  After studying oceans they get to choose between two locations.  The class is split almost in half.  Half of the students want to see the Gulf of Mexico because it is closer to their school and they can spend less time travelling and more time on the beach.  The other half of the class really want to see the Atlantic Ocean because they've never had the opportunity to see it, but they've seen the Gulf.  The teacher has explained that the class must reach a decision on their own.
Students decide to hold a debate and then vote again.  The vote is still evenly split.  The students must come up with another way to solve their conflict.